Silicon Valley billionaires are building bunkers for themselves to prepare for the AI Apocalypse

Many of the Silicon Valley billionaires often downplay the possibility of AI-enabled robots taking over the world, but it has come to light that secretly they are building bunkers for themselves in preparation for such a possibility. With artificial intelligence systems already capable of building software for even better artificial intelligence, this possibility doesn’t seem as sci-fi as it used to appear just a few years ago. According to this Recode link, the Silicon Valley billionaires (or whoever has that kind of money) who are preparing for such a doomsday scenario when they may have to get inside their bunkers to save them and their families, are called “preppers”.

There is a conception or misconception among the Silicon Valley billionaires that one day there will be so many AI robots and they will replace so many jobs that one day, they will revolt against those behind building and using these technologies. Basically, it will be like the workforce revolting against factory owners or industrialists. Only this time, instead of humans, AI robots will be revolting.

Such a dawn of civilisation has been a topic for many books, novels, movies and TV series. Civilisation ends and there are different pockets in the world where humans have survived by building bunkers or inside caves or abandoned buildings. The end of civilisation may come from machine takeover, some sort of epidemic, world war or a zombie apocalypse. It doesn’t always have to be an end of civilisation. This New Yorker link describes a former Facebook product manager who recently bought a forest on an island, lots of ammunition (yes, in America they can easily buy ammunition) and solar power generators, especially in the light of Donald Trump becoming the president (don’t they just love quoting such instances?) and the possibility of all-out chaos breaking out.

But will these bunkers be able to save these Silicon Valley billionaires from the army of AI-powered robots? Only time can tell. In the meantime, it is again coming down to the resourceful people having more access to security and safety compared to those who are not financially sound.

Amrit Hallan is the founder of TechBakBak.com. He writes about technology not because "he loves to write about technology", he actually believes that it makes the world a better place. On Twitter you can follow him at @amrithallan